DougD got a package in the mail

[memaquay]

Ha ha you'e a bab boy Brad. Next trip we do together I'll show you your punishment.

 

[yellowcanoe]

.

I haven't rendered Glenn speechless.. Ever. Of course he went to Mass today.

 

[Odyssey]

"Next trip we do together I'll show you your punishment."
Well yeah, I've already seen your idea of "an easy portage", so consider me already flogged. But still, it was strangely rewarding, in a slightly sadomasochistic tripper kinda way. Does that make me Marquis De Brad? Um, no. But I do sense a fifty shades of Mem happening here. I remain intrigued. Wary, but intrigued.

 

[memaquay]

The older man grabbed the shaft of the paddle and said "this is how you hold it. When I say draw I don' mean pick up a dang crayon, I mean draw! Now cross bow like the little b#@$ch that you are".

- 50 shades of canoeing

 

[sweeper]

"Popular" or 'Polite' Canadian website, or is the 'Polite' implied

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

.

I haven't rendered Glenn speechless.. Ever. Of course he went to Mass today.

I did, and I should have gone to confession too for reading this thread. But are you sure you got my point?

 

[Guest]

Given the packaging I'm afraid to ask how the Spirit Sail is deployed.

if I received said package I would require instructions.

I will attempt to answer those Spirit Sail deployment and use questions.

The Spirit Sail consists of three parts. A base mount, which is simply a rebadged Scotty rod base, a no longer available Y connector that plugs into that base mount, and a vee sail with two carbon fiber battens. The carbon fiber battens are flexible enough to bend and dump errant gusts in higher winds for a comfortingly smooth downwind ride.

PC290267 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

NOTE, the minicel foam is DIY glued to that Y piece so that it floats. An improvement I made after friends somehow dropped a Y overboard, where it sunk like a rock.

To erect a Spirit Sail the Y piece is first plugged into the base mount. This is accomplished by inserting it aligned with the keel and then turning it to the desired angle before seating it fully down in the toothy base sprockets. The Y piece locks in place at either at 180 degrees, or to either side 30 or 60 degree angles.

Once the Y is in place the sail battens sleeve over the Y posts, and the sail is erect and in play. In light winds that is easily accomplished, in stronger winds it helps to take a few hard paddle strokes to get up to wind speed, or fall slightly off the wind direction for less of a filled sail struggle.

To adjust the angle of the locked in place Spirit Sail pull up the Y attachment, pivot to 30 or 60 degrees and push it back down into the base in locked position. That takes only a second with practice. I usually hold the Y with one hand and a sail batten with the other for ease of extraction and twist pivot.

To dismount a Spirit Sail pull the sail battens up and pivot them, still attached to the Y, to the 180 degree position and pull the sail, and the Y, out of the mount. Again, it helps to take a few hard paddle strokes to get up to wind speed, or to turn slightly sideways to dump wind from the sail.

NOTE, some folks cut a half inch off one of the Y posts, so the sail battens can simply be lifted free of the still plugged in Y. I would try that technique if I still had a spare Y to experiment with.

The beauty of the Spirit Sail, to me, is that it requires no sheets, lines or cleats, just the base mount, Y and battened vee sail, and the whole thing fits in a sleeve no larger than a big arsed dildo.

The downside of the Spirit Sail, aside from being useful only in downwind applications, is that it can be a bear to dismount in high winds, especially the large sized Spirit Sail.

For several years I had only one each of the large and small sized Spirit Sails. On trips with friends I would loan them the easier small sail and use the big one myself.

That big sail twice got me in trouble in higher than expected winds when I simply could not dismount the larger sail, which was bent over nearly horizontal in the wind, with the Y and sleeved battens under a lot of stress.

I could probably do so now, with more wind dumping experience, but at the time all I could do was aim for a shallow sandy beach, run the boat ashore, breathe a sigh of relief and dismount the sail before drinking a beer to calm my nerves.

In the second of those instances there was one last sandy beach point of land in my downwind sailing range before I ended up 20 miles away in the next State north, and hitting that last sandy beach was a close run thing. That took two beers to calm my nerves.

The smaller, AKA midsized, Spirit Sail, is a less of a handful in solo boats, and the big one is most useful in light winds or in a tandem hull.

 

[Odyssey]

Making parts buoyant is smart thing many of us overlook. I have any number of small items that likely don't float, in and out of pockets as we paddle sometimes. Camera, reading glasses, sunglasses, compass...That patch of foam on the Y piece is a brilliant idea.

 

[dougd]

Well, thanks for all the good ribbing, maybe!! I certainly never asked for this "honor" but am somehow stuck with with. But to the Spirit Sail. It's a great downwind sail and being able to angle it can still catch some wind. Hell, the less I have to paddle and have a free ride the better I like it. I have a full sail setup, not a lanteen, with a leeboard setup and it does better then the SS, more cloth is all. But for simplicity the SS does the trick.

dougd

 

[Kayak_Ken]

Now we know what the "d" in dougd stands for. ;-). Sorry Doug, couldn't resist.

Kayak_Ken (in a canoe)

 

[canoeswithduckheads]

Have you no decency, Senator McCrea?! Have you no shane?



Well, we all no that's a, "No. No."

There's a spirit in that sail
that is poignant, that's protruding.
Going postal never fails
to deliver cheap shot Doug's now extruding.